


Interwoven

by CryoCait



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Reincarnation, i dont know what this is, maybe?? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 08:09:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15044474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CryoCait/pseuds/CryoCait
Summary: Caleb understood Jester. He understood her with a power and intensity no one ever had. Not her mother, not Beau or Nott or Yasha, not even the Traveller understood her the way Caleb seemed to so easily. It was if he reached into her soul, found the most important pieces, plucked them out, and said “I’ll watch over these for you.”Caleb and Jester have a bond they cannot understand, a bond that is bigger than either of them.





	Interwoven

**Author's Note:**

> They don't tell you when you start film screenwriting school how difficult the transition from present tense to past tense would be, oh my god. I apologize for any strangeness in the prose, I am horribly unused to this style of writing but this wormed its way into my mind and refused to leave until I wrote it.

Caleb understood Jester. He understood her with a power and intensity no one ever had. Not her mother, not Beau or Nott or Yasha, not even the Traveller understood her the way Caleb seemed to so easily. It was if he reached into her soul, found the most important pieces, plucked them out, and said _“I’ll watch over these for you.”_ Even in the Nestled Nook Inn back in Trostenwald, before Jester had ever seen him, had ever heard him, she knew him.

“I think we have people watching us.” Fjord told Jester and Beau, glancing over his shoulder as Beau struggled to count out their earnings evenly. “Take a look over there.” Jester looked over to the nearby table, and her world stopped on its axis.

A small halfling looking girl sat next to a tall, dirty, red headed man. The girl’s eyes were a vibrant yellow, but it was the bright blue eyes of the human man that caught her eye.

“ _They should be brown.”_ A small voice in the back of her subconscious murmured.

He was familiar, somehow. Warm. Teasing him seemed only proper.

“You should take a bath, you know they have showers here.” She stood at their table, grinning at the man. He shot her an exasperated glance.

A faint dream of a memory fluttered through her mind, vanishing just as soon as it appeared. The man hugging her from behind, her groaning, the same exasperated look on her face, him laughing.

_“Ah, we used to take baths together.”_

It was only much later she realized it sounded like Caleb.

-

He didn’t often have gold, spending most of their spoils on parchment and ink. Jester, sweet Jester, would always pay for his small things no matter how much he protested. Drinks, shirts, one time a new pen for his ink. When he questioned her about it she merely giggled and patted the side of his face.

“We all need trinkets, Caleb.”

_“You’re always finding little trinkets to take with you…well, I wanted one of my own.”_

Much later that night Caleb sat reading on his bed, curled up with Frumpkin beside him, running his fingers through his fur. It was strange, he thought, that Frumpkin felt entirely too small.  

-

Caleb wasn’t used to taking care of people. Nott, certainly. But taking care of Nott primarily meant making sure she didn’t get caught stealing. He wasn’t used to caring for someone emotionally, and though he tried for Nott, it never came easily.

With Jester, it was as easy as breathing.

They were on a long trek for a job from The Gentleman. Days on the road seemed to last an eternity, long stretches of silence intercut with half-hearted conversation until two of the party managed to work themselves into a fit over something that sparked a debate, usually Beau and Molly.

They had already set up camp for the evening, Caleb propped against the side of the cart, reading a random novel he found during their last visit to Zadash. Molly and Beau sat across from each other, arguing over the fire about the importance of makeup removal. Fjord and Yasha sat quietly around the fire, watching the confrontation, silently amused. Nott had already retired back to their tent for the night.

As Caleb read, he heard a faint sniffling coming from the inside of the cart. He looked back to the fire once again, recounting the group despite his memory. Only one member was missing. He didn’t hesitate, closing his book and climbing into the cart.

Sitting inside was Jester, clutching her journal. Tears streaked down her face, her usually well kept attire ruffled, her hair tangled as pieces of jewelry which usually hung from her horns to her ears dangled from the knots. Hearing him enter, Jester quickly attempted to wipe away her tears, putting on a smile as he climbed in, sitting himself next to her.

“Caleb! Do you need something from the cart? Am I in your way?”

“No, I just…I heard you crying so I came in to see what was wrong.” She looked over at him, the fake smile melting away.

“I just miss my mama, you know? The days where we’re running into battle and stuff I don’t miss her so much because all I can think about is _‘Oh no, we gotta kill those monsters!’_ But when we’re travelling like this means I’m just sitting there and I’m sitting and thinking and then I start thinking about her and I start getting sad and I tried sending her a message and I even managed to get everything down to twenty five words like you told me to, but I think she was with a client because she didn’t respond and I just really wanted to hear her voice.”

Caleb reached behind her, grabbing a hairbrush she must have tossed to the side. Grabbing her by the waist, he spun her so he faced her back. Carefully, he started brushing through the knots.

“Your hair’s a mess, sit still.”

In Caleb’s mind for the briefest of moments, Jester’s short blue hair transformed into a waterfall of flowing black locks.

_We’ve been here before._

“I tried to take it out but it got caught in my hair and it just went downhill from there really.”

That pulled Caleb out from his thoughts. The two sat in silence for a long stretch of time, Caleb softly working through Jester’s knots, while Jester simply sat there, enjoying the feeling of the brush running through her hair.

“Your mother must be proud of you, _ja?_ Running around, saving the day all over the place.” Jester sniffled, and Caleb instinctually pulled her in closer, hugging her from behind. Jester rubbed her eyes furiously.

“I mean yeah, probably. I just…” She twirled around to face Caleb, the last pieces of jewelry stuck in her hair hitting him in the face. “What if I’m not doing this right, you know? Mama always wanted me to be a lady and instead I’m running around in sewers and killing trolls and-” she cut herself off, a sob wracking through her.

Caleb sat the brush down, pulling Jester in tightly, wrapping his arms around her, placing a hand on the back of her head. She curled into the hug. As she cried into his arms, Caleb could feel his shoulder growing damp. He never hugged, not without significant prompting and much awkwardness.

But Caleb simply pulled her in tighter.

As Jester wept, head tucked into the crook of Caleb’s shoulder, she heard Caleb’s voice in her ear.

_“It breaks my heart to see you doubt yourself. You have always been a wonderful woman.”_

If it was another one of her dream memories and not really Caleb speaking, she couldn’t find it in herself to care.

-

No one in the Mighty Nein expected Caleb and Jester to act the way they did. They orbited each other, moving in tandem, somehow always knowing the other’s move in battle before it happened. It was as if they could read each other’s thoughts.

“Jester grab the-”

“I got it!”

 

Even out of battle, the others noticed their connection.

“Caleb, look at my drawing!”

“…Is that me as Ogre?”

"They’re as stubborn as you.”

“You’re a little shit, you know that righ- _ow! Stop hitting!”_

“Don’t call me a shit, you poop!”

“Don’t call me a poop, you shit!”

 

So often they saw the way Caleb, so much frailer than her, would always take half a step in front of Jester when trouble came their way.

“She is our cleric.” He explained once. “We need her safe at all costs.”

It sounded like an excuse, even to him.

-

Caleb watched as Jester, Beau and Nott ran through the bustling streets of the town they were visiting, jumping from vendor to vendor with a speed only they could have. He stayed several paces behind with Fjord and Yasha, lord only knew where Molly ran off to, watching the exchange from afar.

“Beau, do you think I would look cute with these in my hair?” Caleb watched as Jester held up several pink feathers, fanning them out and tucking them behind her ear.

“No offense here, Jester, but don’t you think you have enough in your hair with the ribbons and the chains and everything?” Jester turned to Nott.

“What do you think, Nott?” Nott looked up, appraising them.

“They don’t look right to me.” Jester pulled out the feathers, looking at them again before setting them back down on the vendor’s cart.

“Yeah, you’re right. Come on, I see a stall with masks! We could _totally_ get you a new one with lipstick and blush and no cracks in it!” Jester grabbed Nott by the hand, pulling her down the street with Beau following close behind.

Caleb watched as they ran forward, away from the vendor.

_“Brother, what are these?”_

_"Something to remind you of how beautiful you are, always.”_

Caleb moved towards the cart, feeling nearly as though he was being pulled forward. He woman at the stall looked up at him, smiling.

“Can I help you sir?”

Several hours later after night had fallen and the party nearly lost their heads to a giant sewer rat, Caleb knocked on the door to Jester and Beau’s room. After several moments, Jester’s head poked out, smiling when you saw him.

“Caleb! Why did you knock, you don’t have to knock.”

“You could have been naked or something.”

“There are worse things than seeing a pretty lady naked, Caleb.”

“No, I don’t want to think about that. Here.” He rummaged through his pockets, pulling out a small box. “This is a gift. _Sie sind für dich.”_ Jester grabbed the box, smiling. She opened the box, pulling out the blue feathers from inside.

“Caleb, what are these?” He smiled hesitantly.

“I saw you earlier with Nott and Beauregard admiring these in pink. The blue made more sense to me.” She smiled and hummed, happily placing them in her hair, tucked behind her ear.

“You don’t think they’ll blend into my hair, though? They’re practically the same shade as it practically.” She looked in the mirror hung on the wall, considering.

“I think they look perfect on you.” Jester turned to Caleb, beaming.

“I do too.”         

-

As they stood on the hill overlooking the burning city of Rexxentrum, Caleb stood silently, barely registering the flames. The King was dead, the Empire in ruins, and the Xorhassian forces were preparing to lay waste to the remainders of the land. The Mighty Nein had gathered the help of many of the gods, legal and outlawed alike, in an effort to save the people of Wildemount. Countless gods aided their efforts, sending their clerics and druids and paladins to the Mighty Nein. The Xorhassian forces were strong, but they were stronger.

By his count, over 100 gods both great and small answered their plea. The Traveler was the first, always beside Jester in her time of need. Then came others, Tiamat, Pan, Pelor, Kord, and Hextor all sent aid. It was an impressive show, certainly one for the history books in Caleb’s opinion.

_“I will happily lock myself away in a library forever and write it should we survive this.”_ He thought, swallowing back the panic, carding his hands through Frumpkin’s fur.

As he watched the flames grow, he heard the sound of footsteps next to him, the weight of the steps familiar. Jester stood next to him. She put a hand on his arm.

“Caleb, we need to go. They’re going to start arriving at any time and we don’t want to be on the front lines for this.” Caleb whipped around to face her, Frumpkin scrambling up to his neck. He drew her close, staring intensely into her eyes. She looked petrified.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the following hours, do not go far from me.” He gripped her shoulder tighter, conveying the importance of his message. “If we are out of earshot you are too far from me. Don’t go far from me.”

Jester nodded, at a loss for words for the first time in her life. Caleb enveloped her in a hug, her head leaning instinctually against his chest.

“Some things really never do change, do they?” Caleb froze. As he looked up, an arm still around the tiefling, he saw standing several yards away, a woman. A woman draped in a long black cloak of feathers, and a blank mask. She was some distance away, yet Caleb could hear her perfectly, as if she was standing next to him. “Hello again, my champion.”

“I don’t know you.”

“Yes you do, you just don’t know that you do.” This confused him further, Caleb remembered everything. Every memory, every book, every moment. She tilted her head, and he could hear her chuckle. “Against all odds, you managed to find her again. I must admit, I’m impressed.”

She walked towards them, gliding more than stepping. “I’m glad you found her again, found all of them again, truly. I understood how important they were to you but I didn’t realize…” she hesitated, as if looking for words. “The work you have done on your own have shown your capabilities again and again, but I do not believe I ever truly grasped how working with your compatriots allowed your capabilities to shine in a way that was simply impossible on their own.”

The woman walked up to them, placing a single hand upon Caleb’s cheek. “Defeat these perverse creatures, my champion. They wish to forsake death, to escape my grasp again and again through their Beacons. Defeat them. End this game. Do this for me and I will grant you the freedom to walk this realm until this mortal vessel you wear expires, a gift to you in good faith. You have not failed me yet, Vax’ildan, I have faith you will not fail me today.” Her hand dropped from his face, and in a blink, she vanished, a flurry of feathers.

“Caleb, why did she call you that name?” Jester asked, easily as confused as Caleb. He stood there in shock, before noticing a single black feather lying on the ground. He leaned down, picking it up gingerly, before carefully closing it within his spellbook.

“I do not know, but I have a feeling our story is much greater than we know.”

**Author's Note:**

> Prose is hard.


End file.
